Great Minds Think Alike — G&G Astaire MTO’s

When you think about all of the possibilities that one could produce with a made to order shoe, the amount of variations is undoubtedly in the millions, if not more, depending on how many factors are involved. That being, when I saw this pair of shoes, owned by Mr. Kevin Seah (bespoke suit maker out of Singapore), it instantly made me chuckle, as it reminded me of my own MTO by Gaziano & Girling and the similarities between them. Granted, the shoes are made on different lasts and are of different colors, but when you think about the coincidence of us being presented with the opportunity of making a G&G MTO shoe, both Kevin and I chose the ‘Astaire’ and did so using tone on tone suede/leather combinations. As my favorite color is blue, I decided to go with midnight blue on navy suede, while it would appear that Kevin’s favorite color is red, which made him go with what looks like vintage cherry paired with red suede….While I obviously love the variation that I created, I must say that looking at this red number here makes me think that should I ever go for another G&G MTO, I might have to cramp Kevin’s style and get his same pair! I am sure that he won’t mind….. 😉

Dear Justin,It seems I posted a comment here the other day but it didn’t go online. The true Fred Astaire shoe is similar to the C&J Lonsdale in Dark Brown/Dark Mink suede.

Regarding toplifts, I found the combination ones with ~20 nails on them to be slippery, but I don’t have a problem with ones with only ~5 nails. The nails on the outside are worn down, but those on the inside are not. Do you have any experience/suggestions for this?

Finally, I will sign up for an account soon, but I just wanted to thank you for your blog, especially the shoe shine article, my shoes look so much better now and get scuffed a lot less (touch wood)!

Regarding toplifts and too many nails the only solution that I can think of is to rub true beeswax (like a hard ball of it) on the heel covering the nails and the leather…this is probably the only thing, but it will be temporary and will require more application….this is simply the problem with overcrowding the heel/sole with too many nails…

Alex B – Will do my friend…just have to make sure that I can get enough of that flannel to make it happen.

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